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Recycling Facts - U.S. Economy

Overall, Americans recovered 34% of waste generated in 2011. In 2010, Americans generated about 250 million tons of trash and recycled and composted over 85 million tons of this material, equivalent to a 34.1 percent recycling rate. On average, we recycled and composted 1.51 pounds out of our individual waste generation of 4.43 pounds per person per day.

In 2009, Americans recycled 82 million tons of materials. The resulting CO2 emission reduction is equivalent to taking 33 million passenger vehicles off the road. The recyclable materials in the U.S. waste stream would generate over $7 billion if they were recycled. That’s equivalent to Donald Trump’s net worth.

The amount of wood we throw away each year is enough to heat 50,000,000 homes for 20 years. 1,121,84 employees in collections, processing, manufacturing and remanufacturing , generating an annual payroll of 37 billion dollars!

Recent independent research shows there is enough material to meet domestic manufacturers’ demand for recycled materials for the foreseeable future.

250 million metric tons of scrap materials recycled annually including:• 81.6 million tons of Iron and Steel• 5 million tons of Aluminum• 1.8 million tons of Copper• 2 million tons of Stainless Steel• 1.3 million tons of Lead• 420,000 tons of Zinc• 45 million pounds of Plastic (bottles)• 2.4 million tons of Electronics• 285 million Tires Annually

Recycling Facts - Global Trade

Scrap has been an important export commodity from the US for more than a century.

Cleaner air and water from safely removing potentially hazardous materials and keeping them out of landfills.• Mercury switches removed from older automobiles.• Lead recovered from computer monitors.• Various harmful chemicals safely recycled from electronics.